November 9, 2006

WelCome to BNP Website

By Ardeshir Cowasjee
‘THEY’ killed one former chief minister of Balochistan (also a former governor) in the August 2006 shoot-out at the Kohlu corral, when Nawab Mohammad Akbar Khan Shahbaz Bugti went up in his gory blaze of glory.

‘They’ have learnt nothing, neither have ‘they’ been reined in. ‘They’ have now incarcerated, and humiliated, in Karachi Central Prison another former chief minister of that unhappy deranged province of Balochistan, Akhtar Mengal of the Balochistan National Party, son of Ataullah…….More

QUETTA, Nov 26: Balochistan National Party (Mengal) president Sardar Akhtar Mengal has said that law-enforcement agencies have arrested over 350 leaders and …http://www.dawn.com/2006/11/27/top18.htm – 14k –

On January 10, when senior advocate Mr Azizullah Sheikh arrived at Karachi Central Prison to have his vakalatnama signed by his client, Akhtar Mengal, …http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/cowas.htm – 19k – 14 Jan 2007

In a statement issued by the PML (N) International Secretariat here, Mr Sharif said that Sardar Akhtar Mengal was a patriot who had been the chief minister …http://www.dawn.com/2006/12/28/nat13.htm – 14k –

KARACHI, Dec 26: Balochistan National Party (Mengal) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal was on Tuesday sent to jail till Jan 5 by an anti-terrorism court in the …http://www.dawn.com/2006/12/27/top14.htm – 14k –

KARACHI, Jan 8: Defence counsel for former Balochistan chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal moved bail application on Monday for his client in the army men …http://www.dawn.com/2007/01/09/nat3.htm – 14k –

QUETTA, Oct 29: The Balochistan National Party plans to stage a long march from Gwadar to Quetta in protest against military operation in Balochistan, establishing of cantonments in the province, killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, arrests of political activists and Gwadar mega projects.

This was announced by BNP president Akhtar Mengal at a press conference at his residence here on Sunday.

He said that the military operation continued in Dera Bugti and Kohlu and a few days ago the army with air cover conducted an operation in the Kalat area and arrested a number of people.

He alleged that hundreds of political activists and youths had been arrested or ‘kidnapped’ by law-enforcement agencies and despite protests by their parents and relatives, the authorities were not disclosing whereabouts of the missing youths.

Mr Mengal said that the BNP would soon release names of arrested or ‘kidnapped’ political workers and youths.

He said that the long march with the name of Lashkar-i-Balochistan would start on November 30 from Gwadar and conclude on December 11 in Quetta. During the march, public meetings would be held in Gwadar, Turbat, Panjgur, Basima, Nal, Khuzdar, Surab, Kalat and Mastung.

He estimated that thousands of BNP workers and other people would participate in the march.

He said that his party’s MNA and MPAs had resigned from the assemblies in protest against the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti as the institutions had lost their importance.Answering a question, he said that the BNP central council would take a decision on the party’s participation in parliamentary politics in future.

Answering another question, he said that his party had consultations with other opposition parties and the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy on the issue of resignation.

“I told an ARD meeting in Quetta that unless we resign from the assemblies, a civil disobedience movement could not be launched.”

About a Baloch tribal jirga convened by President Musharraf in Islamabad, he said: “It is of no importance. The tribal jirga held in Kalat was convened by the Khan of Kalat as the head of Baloch tribes. In what capacity is Gen Musharraf convening a tribal Jirga? He is not chief of any tribe.”

He said that no ‘real’ Baloch tribal chief would take part in the official jirga. “However, there are some Sardars who will take part in this Jirga as they have sold themselves up to Islamabad just for Rs200,000 the government is offering to each participant.”

He said that a chartered plane would take the participants to Islamabad.

QUETTA, Nov 28: Balochistan National Party (Mengal) president Sardar Akhtar Mengal has been detained in a farmhouse in Sakran, which has been declared a sub-jail.

The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Khuzdar range, Pervez Zahoor, served the order of the home department on the BNP president, party leader Rauf Mengal told Dawn on telephone from Hub…….http://dawn.com/2006/11/29/top2.htm

They said that the arrests were aimed at preventing them from participating in a protest long march on Thursday in the province against extra-judicial arrests of political activists and setting up of cantonments in Balochistan………

QUETTA, Nov 28: The Balochistan National Party (Mengal) and the Baloch Students Organisation have vowed to go ahead with the “Lashkar-i-Balochistan long march” plan, scheduled to start on Nov 30, despite the house arrest of party president Sardar Akhtar Mengal and detention of BSO chairman Mohiuddin Baloch……..

QUETTA, Nov 26: Balochistan National Party (Mengal) president Sardar Akhtar Mengal has said that law-enforcement agencies have arrested over 350 leaders and workers of the party from different parts of the province to stop long march planned by the BNP.

Speaking at a press conference in Hub town on Sunday, he said the government was scared of BNP-M’s ‘Lashkar-i-Balochistan’ long march from Gwadar to Quetta on Nov 30….http://dawn.com/2006/11/27/top18.htm..

‘150 BNP-M workers arrested’

QUETTA, Nov 25: More than 150 workers of the Balochistan National Party have been arrested all over the province, including Khuzdar, Kalat, Gwadar, Pasni, Turbat, Jewani, Ormara, Panjgur, Nushki.

“Law enforcement agencies have taken hundreds of leaders and workers (of the party) into custody from different areas of Balochistan,” Abdur Rauf Mengal, a BNP (Mengal) leader, told this correspondent over telephone on Saturday……..

BNP leader Akhtar Mengal has been put under house arrest and according to him hundreds of party activists have also been detained. The police has confirmed 145 arrests. The crackdown comes on the eve of a protest march organised by the party from Gwadar to Quetta. The protest was aimed at expressing resentment against what the BNP calls extrajudicial arrests and abductions of political activists, killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, military operation and the establishment of mega-projects. While some may differ with certain views of the party, there is no justification for stopping the party chief from leading a peaceful protest march.
The law and order situation in Balochistan has continued to deteriorate despite military operations against the supposed ferrari camps avowedly run by certain Sardars… »Detail

Mengal’s detention (ThePost Editorial)

The long march of protest from Gwadar to Quetta called for by the Balochistan National Party (BNP) today has got off to an inauspicious start. The head of the BNP, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, along with 50 of his co-workers were detained in Sakrand on the eve of the march under MPO 16, that infamous relic of dictatorial times. These detentions follow the arrest of hundreds of nationalist political workers throughout the province in the last few days. Mengal’s detention orders were explained by a high police official as well as the federal parliamentary affairs minister Sher Afgan in the Senate as necessary in view of the anticipated threat to law and order.

The question arises, what threat to law and order? The protest march showed no signs of remaining anything but a peaceful expression of resentment felt throughout the province at the ongoing military operation, the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, the so-called mega projects and the intent to set up cantonments in the interior of the province. In the absence of any evidence that the marchers would not remain peaceful, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that the arrests and detentions were meant to prevent the holding of the march. That may not happen. The BNP and the Baloch Students Organisation, whose chairman Mohyuddin Baloch has also been detained, vowed to proceed with the march as scheduled today. The government’s resort to this kind of high-handedness can only be explained by its apprehension that the march will attract a large number of disgruntled citizens of Balochistan to its banner. Akhtar Mengal’s preparatory rally at Hub on Monday indicated the strength of feelings running through Balochistan, and promised the march would be historic. Whether the government’s pre-emptive tactics will yield the desired results will be known by the end of the day. But the ‘provocation’ resorted to may end up causing the planned peaceful march to turn violent if the path of the marchers is blocked.

The government had claimed after the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti that the insurgency had been crushed. That claim has turned out to be premature, since clashes with the guerrillas have followed that sad event with regularity. Only the other day, Nushki and Kahan, separated by hundreds of miles, saw clashes between the security forces and the guerrillas. None of the genuine complaints by the citizens of Balochistan, for example the issue of ‘missing’ persons believed to have been picked up by the intelligence agencies and held incommunicado in the hundreds, have been addressed. Such ‘disappearances’ are clearly in violation of the law of the land and the constitution. But the government has seen fit to ride roughshod over such niceties in the name of quelling the disturbance in Balochistan and establishing the writ of the government.

The fact remains however, that that ‘writ’ rests on hollow foundations. While the government never tires of parroting the benefits of the mega projects the federal government has launched in Pakistan’s poorest province, the Balochistan provincial government is in dire financial straits because its overdraft and interest payments have reached an unprecedented level and it has had to put development and even current expenditures on hold. The much touted Gwadar deep sea port project also reflects the monumental folly of the government’s approach. According to press reports, the port seems a ghost town, with not a boat having docked so far, no infrastructure inland to support the functioning of what has been boasted of as the ‘Dubai of the 21st century’, a solitary five star hotel without guests, and displaced fisherfolk ruing their future without work. If this is a microcosm of the ‘bright future’ the government has in mind for Balochistan, it is little wonder that far from an acceptance of the ‘writ’ of the government, increasing numbers of citizens in Balochistan are turning towards militancy and even rebellion. Yet the government persists in its stubborn resistance to any idea of political solutions through talks with the genuine representative forces of the province. If ever there was a case of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face, one needs look no further. http://thepost.com.pk/EditorialNews.aspx?dtlid=70767&catid=10b
More BNP leaders held

QUETTA – Police Wednesday arrested some Balochistan National Party leaders in bid to thwart the long march termed as Lashkar-e-Balochistan, which was scheduled to start from coastal town of Gwader today.
BNP Senior Vice President Jahanzaib Jamaldini along with two central executive committee members, Jahanzaib Baloch and Akhtar Hussain Langov, was arrested. The three central leaders along with a dozen of local office-bearers were arrested by the police when they set out for Gwadar from Punjgoor…..read more